Friday 9 February 2024

BEATS OF LOVE 

111. Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is A Season) by The Byrds

WAS GOING to write at length about the Hangout at Isadora's, but drug stories are often boring and this is a bit of a drug story. The first few times I attended the club, pissed out of my tree, I danced wildly. Meeting a lovely girl in a suede dress on the dancefloor whose Hulme sofa I later collapsed on. 


I awoke having my hair playfully stroked with Bob Marley playing on her cassette player and thought I'd gone to heaven. Fast forward to the following Friday evening and I'm half cut but paralyzed by nerves, unable to call the number she'd given me. Then my good mate Stu, in exasperation, took the phone and, impersonating me, arranged my date.




Unfathomably, on the train down to meet her, he handed me a micro-dot, which I duly swallowed. My first time on drugs then excitedly coincided with my first date. Then I stopped the uncontrolled laughter. Before you think my good mate Stu wasn't such a good mate, I must confess to living a charmed life and revelling in being a bastard. 



Locking a guy out of his own car as he got battered in my place was bad, but actually trumped by a case of mistaken identity. I emptied the contents of my Holsten Pils into a driver's open window as we exchanged expletives. Further up the road, the irate driver, now armed with some lead piping, shoved straight past me and instead hospitalized my mate. So I deserved this.   


This being the crippling fear I was now experiencing in the club. The bemused girl attempting to hold my hand was scaring me. In fact, everything I set eyes on was. Even Stu, who seemed to have a whale of a time. I was better at closing my eyes and listening to Dave Booth's brilliant tunes. Then, as I nervously sidled away from my date, I experienced my Damascus moment. Exploring the swirling lights when this mighty tune came on and a small group of folk who looked like Candy Flip encouraged me to hold hands. We all danced together, only we didn't just dance, we flew up into the air and became a tangible mass of love. Feeling truly incredible and something akin to what I hoped clubbing could feel like.  

I had a dilemma: did I phone the girl to apologize or did I chase that incredible high? In fact, no dilemma at all.  

    

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